Hanlon FiredCoach Glen Hanlon was fired this morning with the Caps off to the franchise's worst start in 26 years and mired in last place in NHL with 13 points in 21 games.

The final straw, it seems, was last night's wretched 5-1 loss to Atlanta at Verizon Center, where the Thrashers scored five consecutive goals and the Caps appeared incapable of doing anything about it. The defeat was Washington's fifth straight and ninth in 10 games.

Hershey Coach Bruce Boudreau will replace Hanlon on an interim basis.

Boudreau, who coached seven of the current Capitals when they were members of the Bears, is on the ice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, presiding over his first practice. He'll make his NHL debut tomorrow afternoon in Philadelphia against the Flyers at Wachovia Center.

No timetable has been set for naming a coach beyond Boudreau's interim status.

The 52-year-old Toronto native led the Bears to back-to-back championship round appearances in the American Hockey League, winning the Calder Cup in 2005-06. He coached nine seasons in the AHL and played parts of eight seasons with the Maple Leafs and Blackhawks, recording 70 points in 141 games as a forward.

Hanlon, meantime, leaves with a record of 78-123-9-29. His assistant coaches, Jay Leach and Dean Evason, have been retained, according to the team.

The players found out about the change this morning. But anyone who attended Hanlon's postgame press conference last night knew something was coming down.

Update:Boudreau has only been on the ice for about 40 minutes, but I can already point out some major differences in how he deals with players. First of all, he's a yeller. He's barks encouragement and instructions constantly during drills -- something you rarely heard from Hanlon, who was more reserved on the ice.

The players also have to race over to the eraser board when Boudreau blows his whistle. The last player to the huddle is forced to skate a lap. Just saw Erskine do one.

Update:Here are some quotes for you to digest before digging into that turkey:

Ovechkin: "Of course I am surprised. I really like him, he give me a lot. It's hard for him, hard for the team. It's life. I've never been in this situation in my life, with coach getting fired. If team lose, guy who will be fired is coach. If we win, nobody talking about coach. If we lose, everyone talks about coach."

Clark: "I'm disappointed, I take a lot of the responsibility on myself as one of the older guys on the team to come through for a great guy like Glennie. I'm taking this really hard."

As for Boudreau's style: "Everything is to try to force the other team to make a mistake. You don't give them time, the liberty of skating with the puck. You want to make them make a bad pass."

Kolzig: "I left Glen a message and told him I was sorry, sorry that we weren't successful. Everyone's got to look themselves in the mirror and get it done.

"We had a meeting about all the mistakes we made against Florida the other day. It was pretty evident what we were doing wrong, and we went right back out in the second period yesterday and did the exactly the same thing."

On one hand, the Caps as an organization had little choice but to do SOMETHING, and you can't cut 20 guys.

On the other, not only is Hanlon an EXTREMELY affable character, but he did a great job with this team in the 'lean' times... keping them positive and developing talent while he patiently waited for some 'added talent' to make the Caps truly competitive.

But the Caps just weren't getting it done this year, and the organization did spend the money to make the team better. It just hasn't shown on the ice yet - at all. A shake-up was required, and changing the head coach is really the only stroke that management had at their disposal.

Best of luck to Glen. I know that the players had much love for him, and hopefully the move will shame them into playing a little bit better hockey for Bruce Boudreau.

It will be interesting to see if Bruce Boudreau fares any better, and how long they keep him around (I guess ultimately that will depend on how he does). I always like when coaches new to the NHL get a chance.

Capitals backup goalie Brent Johnson, sitting on the bench during the game against the Florida Panthers, wore a burgundy Redskins hat in Taylor's memory.

"The tragic loss of Sean Taylor has affected the entire Washington community," public address announcer Wes Johnson told the crowd. "We all feel a tremendous amount of sadness over his untimely death."

The above-ice scoreboard showed still photographs and videotape of Taylor playing football for his Florida high school, the University of Miami and the Redskins. The screen then faded to black, with white lettering showing his name, uniform number and dates of birth and death.